When it comes to hardware on Your instrument, there are quit a few choices, and although it is not necessarily a big job to replace tuners or bridges, with direct replacements, it can be a big task to convert a static bridge like a Tune-O-Matic with a tremolo system, or tuners that do not fit into the holes the old ones occupied.
Many a DIYer has spent a good amount of money on an original Floyd Rose tremolo to replace the cheap licensed version, only to find out that the post spacing is different, or other parts thereof are different and don't fit, or a set of tuners where the posts are to tall or to short... I have also worked on my fair share of instruments that have been awfully mutilated by the attempt to convert them to different hardware's by force instead of with technique, as well as those that came with poor designs right from the factory.
It is actually a good idea to replace cheap and shotty hardware with higher quality replacements if you are a player and not a collector. Swapping out cheap, badly made hardware with known good hardware can improve the sound and lessen tuning problems. You may even want to go as far as using different and better technology, and contrary to popular belief locking nuts and fine tuners are not just for heavy metal, but can make a drastic improvement on any guitar where it comes to staying in tune, even on static bridges.
Lets say you want to install a tremolo unit on your Les Paul, that was made for a Stratocaster type guitar or vice versa. It can be done, but not without some drastic changes involving woodwork and then some. If you want it to look like the guitar was made that way from the factory, then it may even call for a total refinish. There are ways around that in some cases, like hiding the old holes where the tail piece was mounted with cool inlays, or making a cover that matches the pick guard or fingerboard to hide an unused tremolo rout. You don't have to worry about collectors value once you cut stuff up, as that will be gone at that point, even if it does look stock. I am pretty good at coming up with alternative solutions, and will gladly saw the headstock off of your guitar or bass and make it look professional, should you want to convert it to one of those systems with tuners integrated into the bridge, but don't want to spend a small fortune on refinishing the whole instrument. Sometimes making it fit involves not just changing a piece of hardware, but modifying the hardware itself, there too I am skilled in metal working and can cut threads, reshape parts to fit and even make parts from scratch, without the hacked look.
I am not a traditionalist nor a collector, and I see little to no value in factory made instruments that were badly designed in the first place, or designed around cost cutting rather than functionality and quality. We have much better hardware solutions now, than back when your 1970's instrument was made, so upgrades can be a good thing. There are also more cheap knockoffs and low quality stuff floating around than ever before too, advertised with information that sounds great unless you are paying good attention and realize that “same dimensions as”, means it will fit, but does not mean same quality in, or better material and so on. More often than not the missing information will tell you the real truth.
There are way more choices than ever in enhanced better than original replacement hardware, but some of those are just high priced engineering overkill, that may require “no turning back” installations that turn out to make such a small difference, that it would take a team of scientists in a laboratory under controlled conditions to measure an improvement, few humans could ever perceive. Adding something good at the loss of something possibly more desirable, can become a reality.
A tremolo system that stays in perfect tune when a string breaks, requiring cutting out copious amounts of wood and replacing it with 3lbs of additional weight in sterile sounding metal, all for a higher price than a good used backup guitar or two, is “Hokus Pokus”, especially when considering the lengthy procedure to tune it when you break a string! Robotic tuners?!?!? Who comes up with this stuff? If you need robotic tuners then you shouldn't be playing bass or guitar, and you can pay less to have your hearing checked. I can see them being a god sent on pianos, but they make little sense on anything with less than 25 strings.
For those of you who don't dig tremolo bridges, you can skip the rest. If you are confused by the hype, or have a strong opinion on them, then please read on.
Tremolos, which are actually vibratos, and I love using them, but most of them suck in one way or another. The trick is finding one that sucks the least for you. Your friends opinion is just that; his not yours. here is a short primer on vibrato systems.
All but a very few of those made between the 40's and the mid seventies have a lot of string between the tremolo and the bridge, which are far apart and do not stay in tune worth excrement, most of them do not have enough travel to pull a whole note or do dive bombs, although back when they were designed they truly had the vibrato effect in mind and no more. Personally I prefer the term “Whammy”, as it is more suitable to today's playing styles.
The ones found on Fender mustangs are bad and Jaguars even more so, made worse by tilting bridges that can not tilt as far as the strings can be moved and never return to zero, and little to no positive angle and string pressure on the bridge and nut. Bigsby's a 40's design are better, but they still have too much string between the tail piece and the bridge of the guitar, made worse when used with bridges that don't have roller saddles. Mosrite who worked for Paul Bigsby had designs with less string to the bridge.
Strangely, next to having some of the worse 60's designs, Fender who couldn't tell tremolo (rapid fluctuating volume) and vibrato (rapid fluctuating pitch) apart thus calling them tremolos, had one of the best in the Stratocaster design from the 50's, but it saw little or no improvement until two Germans (Michael & Dieter) improved the concept somewhat around 1976 adding fine tuners and a wider range of movement with their “Rockinger” tremolo, adding posts and knife edges to its second incarnation by 1981. Kramer was using them until 1982 when they hooked up with Floyd Rose who came up with the double locking system as early as 1977 which had the locking nut and string locks , but no fine tuners yet. Eddy Van Halen who played Kramer's equipped with Rockinger's and a few others including Steve Vai had Floyd's first home made units. Kramer dropped Rockinger in favor of Floyd Rose, and a year later the two designs were merged adding fine tuners to the Floyd Rose. That being said somehow Michael and Dieter, and Floyd Rose both working with Kramer either had very similar designs at the same time, or someone was stealing. Little information can be found exactly how that all went down.
Bigsby's are still being made with a few slight but less significant improvements and are priced to high for what they can do, and appeal to vintage purists, who can not see technology over tradition. The two best systems out there are the Kahler tremolo system and the Floyd Rose types with a few great versions by a few companies most notably Schaller who makes the Floyd rose originals and an even better version of their own the “Lockmeister”, Gotoh with the best licensed version and Ibanez, who replaced the problematic fulcrums with cams, creating a hybrid with Floyd rose and their own patents, and a whole host of companies (everyone and their cousin) make cheap low quality Licensed versions. The Kahler tremolo system comes in various flavors too, but are all under direct Kahler USA control and the range of quality is not nearly as far spread, with most being high end.
There are two major camps: Floyd Rose and Kahler, and most of them will argue to the death over a few slight differences in performance, where it is really more a matter of personal taste, and what instrument they are attached to also makes a slight difference. I for one like both of them when playing guitars equipped with them. The Floyd Rose stays in tune better, but both are ions above anything else out there, and adjusting the Kahler when it goes out by 2 cents is a mere matter of tapping the whammy bar and it is back in perfect tune again. Both of them have fine tuners, so on the rare occasion they go out of tune a little, they can be dialed back in, in a flash, but I prefer the Kahler in that matter because it is more comfortable to tune. The feel of the whammy bar on the Kahler is like a precision instrument that heeds your very touch, where as the Floyd Rose fights back somewhat. That is where the similarities end, and the differences begin.
As a luthier I don't like Floyd Rose vibratos, you can't change strings easily, the string spacing can not be adjusted, the individual string height is set and can only be changed with shims or replacement saddles. Setting the intonation on them is a bitch without a special tool that does not fit most licensed ones, and without you have to loosen the string considerably to adjust them, tune it back up, and repeat if still off until it is set right The string mounting blocks are easy to under or over tighten for those without “The Touch” resulting in strings popping out or breaking, and eventually the mounting blocks crack in half and even get stuck in the saddles making replacement necessary, difficult and expensive.
The fulcrums are its weakest most problematic point. They wear out over time with regular use, and when adjusted with string tension on them, they can be damaged in no time, and lubricants will not help much at all, as the full string tension doubled by the counter springs rests on two tiny points. The Bridge post anchors are press fit into the wood and can work themselves loose over time, or crack the body when the bridge takes a blow or even during installation. They do not work in softer hardwoods and installation in basswood and pine is out of the question without additional brackets. So much wood has to be removed from the body to install a Floyd Rose, that with the pickup routs the benefits of a neck through body design are canceled out. Should you break a string during a show or in the studio, it goes so far out of whack that you are better off with a backup guitar ready to go.
So What is my favorite vibrato? Hands down and in every aspect Kahler's are the bomb. In 1982 when Floyd Rose's where entering a broader market, Gary Kahler was near done with the development of his tremolo system which featured every imaginable adjustment including the sensitivity, a ball bearing mounted cam, easier to adjust fine tuners a string locking tree that can be added to almost any guitar without major surgery or nut replacement. It can replace fender and Floyd Rose type bridges with only the slightest alteration of the existing rout, and covers up the original rout completely, so no wood grafts or finishing are needed. He even makes a version that replaces a Tune-o-Matic on Les Paul's and the like that uses the existing mounts. When it hit the market, the whammy wars were on!
Kahler had made licensed Fender replacement bridges out of brass way before that, and also improved Strat bridges used by Fender in their own production. As a matter of fact, Floyd Rose struck a deal with Gary Kahler to Produce licensed Floyd Rose bridges, which he did, and then from what I have read, Floyd Rose backed out of the deal and Gary Kahler was stuck with a few thousand units and sold them to recoup his losses and Floyd sued him for millions over it, and Gary lost. If I were the judge I would have made Floyd pay Gary for any losses he still had not caught up with.
In the early 90's Kahler” obtained a license again to make a close version of the Floyd Rose, The Kahler “Stealer”, where the major differences were better hardening of the knife edges and pivot studs, and a screw in whammy bar, as well as the "Traditional series" fulcrum bridge which improved on Rose's design with ball end string holders and adjustable saddle height, but then Kahler got into making great golf clubs, and seized production of FR patented designs, and now makes improved and other versions of his own designs.
If you break a string on a Kahler the string can be changed much faster, and if you don't have a string handy, the others can be tuned up to pitch with ease before the verse is over. A Kahler whammy will cost around twice that of an Original Floyd Rose, but you get what you pay for, and you can pick the various parts in materials, colors and plating of your choice to get the look and sound you are looking for when you order one directly from Kahler. Oh, you can get extended saddles for fanned fret systems too, making the Kahler a true marvel of engineering.